1849
Year 1849 (MDCCCXLIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). Events of 1849 January - March * January 1 **France issues Ceres, France's first postage stamp. **In Milan, anti-Austrian activists organize a smoking boycott in protest of the Austrian monopoly on tobacco. Protests erupts into brief riots. * January 12 - Uprising against Austrian troops in Palermo, Sicily. * January 13 -Second Anglo-Sikh War - British forces retreat from the Battle of Chillianwala. * January 21 - General elections in the Papal States. * January 23 - Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her MD by the Medical Institute of Geneva, thus becoming the United States' first woman doctor. * January 31 - Corn Laws abolished in the United Kingdom (following legislation in 1846). * February 8 - New Roman Republic established. * February 14 - In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first President of the United States to have his photograph taken. * February 28 - Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the [[Wikipedia:SS California|SS California]] in San Francisco Bay. The California left New York Harbor on October 6, 1848, rounded Cape Horn at the tip of South America, and arrived at San Francisco after the 4 month 21 day journey. * March 3 ** Minnesota becomes a United States territory. ** The United States Department of the Interior is established. ** The U.S. Congress passes the Gold Coinage Act allowing the minting of gold coins. * March 4 - Zachary Taylor refuses to be sworn in office on a Sabbath (Sunday). Urban legend holds that David Rice Atchison, President pro tempore of the United States Senate was President de jure for a single day. * March 5 - Zachary Taylor, the 12th President of the United States of America, takes his oath of office. * March 28 - Four Christians are ordered burnt alive in Antananarivo, Madagascar by Queen Ranavalona I and 14 others are executed. * March 29 - The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab April - June * April 1 - After ten days, the insurrection in Brescia is ended by Austrian troops. * April 2 - The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states end and fail. * April 14 - Hungary declares independence from Austria * April 21 - Irish Potato Famine: 96 inmates of the overcrowded Ballinrobe Union Workhouse die over the course of the preceding week from illness and other famine-related conditions, a record high. * April 25 - The Governor General of Canada, Lord Elgin, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal's English population and triggering the Montreal Riots. * April 27 - Giuseppe Garibaldi enters in Rome to defend it from the French troops of General Oudinot. * May 3 - The May Uprising in Dresden begins - the last of the German revolutions of 1848. * May 3 - Break in the Mississippi River levee at Sauvé's Crevasse which will flood much of New Orleans * May 15 - Troops of the Two Sicilies take Palermo and crush the republican government of Sicily * May 17 - The St. Louis Fire started when a steamboat caught fire and nearly burned down the entire city. * June 5 - Denmark becomes constitutional monarchy * June 6 - The city of Fort Worth is founded, at that time known as "Camp Worth". Starting off humbly, the city would one day be a major cattle-herding center, and a major center of commerce in the South. July - September * July 3 - French troops occupy Rome. Roman Republic surrenders. * July 6 - The Danish Army beats the Prussian army at Fredericia, Jutland thereby putting an end to the Prussian/Danish War until 1864 * August 8 – Austria crushes the Hungarian rebellion with Russian aid. * August 24 - Venice surrenders to Austrian troops after a 4-month siege * September 1 - The first segment of the Pennsylvania Railroad, from Lewiston to Harrisburg, opens for service. October - December * October 6 - The execution of the 13 Martyrs of Arad after the Hungarian War of Independence. * November - Austin College received charter in Huntsville * November 16 - A Russian court sentences Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group, but his execution is canceled at the last minute Ongoing Events * Irish Potato Famine (1845-1849) * First war of Schleswig (1848-1850) Births * Mohammad Ya`qub Khan, Emir of Kabul, Emir of Kandahar (d. 1923) January - June * January 9 - John Hartley, English tennis player, double winner of Wimbledon (d. 1935) * January 14 - James Moore, winner of the first ever cycle race. (d. 1935) * January 18 **Edmund Barton, first Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1920) **Aleksander Świętochowski - Polish writer of Positivist period (d. 1938) * January 22 - August Strindberg, Swedish author, playwright, and painter (d. 1912) * February 13 - Lord Randolph Churchill, British statesman (d. 1895) * February 18 - Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author (d. 1906) * February 22 - Nikolay Yakovlevich Sonin, Russian mathematician (d. 1915) * March 2 - Robert Means Thompson, American naval officer (d. 1930) * March 7 - Luther Burbank, American biologist and botanist (d. 1926) * March 19 - Alfred von Tirpitz, German soldier (d. 1930) * April 6 - John William Waterhouse, Italian-born artist (d. 1917) * May 3 - Bernhard von Bülow, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1929) * May 16 - Jalaleddin Ali Mir Abolfazl Angha, 39th Oveyssi Sufi master (d. 1914) * May 22 - Louis Perrier, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1913) * June 9 - Michael Peter Ancher, Danish painter (d. 1927) July - December * July 22 - Emma Lazarus, American poet (d. 1887) * July 29 - Max Nordau, Austrian author, philosopher, and Zionist leader (d. 1923) *August 28 - Benjamin Godard, French composer (d. 1895) *September 3 - Sarah Orne Jewett, American writer (d. 1909) *September 14 - Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, Russian researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1936) * November 29 - John Ambrose Fleming, English electrical engineer and inventor (d. 1945) * December 4 - Crazy Horse, Chief of the Oglala Sioux (d. 1877) * December 6 - August von Mackensen, German field marshal (d. 1945) * December 12 - William Kissam Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (d. 1920) : See also 1849 births. Deaths January - June *February 8 - France Prešeren, Slovenian poet (b. 1800) * March 14 - King Willem II of the Netherlands (b. 1792) * May 22 - Maria Edgeworth, Irish novelist (b. 1767) * May 25 - Benjamin d'Urban, British general and colonial administrator (b. 1777) * May 28 - Anne Brontë, English author (b. 1820) *June 10 - Thomas Robert Bugeaud, Marshal of France and duke of Isly (b. 1784) *June 15 - James Knox Polk, 11th President of the United States (b. 1795) July - December *July 12 - Dolley Madison, First Lady of the United States (b. 1768) *July 28 - King Charles Albert of Sardinia (b. 1798) * September 25 - Johann Strauss, Senior, Austrian composer (b. 1804) * October 7 - Edgar Allan Poe, American writer (b. 1809) * October 17 - Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French musician and composer (b. 1810) * October 22 - William Miller, American Baptist preacher (b. 1782) * December 2 - Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, queen of William IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1792) : See also 1849 deaths.